How Paul Manafort Took Over the Trump Campaign

Paul Manafort is an advanced student of political coups. The veteran GOP fixer has, over the years, whispered in the ears of ousted foreign leaders like Ukraine’s president Viktor Yanukovych. Now, Manafort is doing the overthrowinghimself.

The 67-year-old operative, whom Donald Trump hired last month to oversee the campaign delegate-getting operation, has displaced Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s embattled campaign manager. According to interviews with five sources, Manafort is now firmly in charge of all major aspects of Trump’s campaign (at least as in charge as anyone can be with a candidate like Trump). Over the past week, Manafort has gained control of an expanded $20 million budget, hiring decisions, advertising, and media strategy — domains that had been exclusively Lewandowski’s. “It’s pretty clear that Paul has taken over the campaign,” one senior staffer told me. Most importantly, Manafort reports toTrump.

Not surprisingly, Lewandowski has not ceded power willingly. And several people described the mood inside Trump’s campaign as a “civil war.” “It’s Manafort vs. Corey,” one source close to the campaign said. Manafort’s camp includes his longtime deputy Rick Gates; Rick Wiley, Scott Walker’s former campaign manager, who joined Trump earlier this month; and Roger Stone, a former Manafort business partner who continues to advise Trump informally. Lewandowski’s core team includes deputy campaign manager Michael Glassner, press secretary Hope Hicks, and adviser Alan Cobb. In recent days, there have been “blowups” on emails over budget matters between Lewandowski loyalists and Gates. Yesterday, Trump’s national field director, Stuart Jolly, a Lewandowski backer, quit after being told he would report toWiley.

Manafort and Lewandowski did not return calls forcomment.

The shift of power from Lewandowski to Manafort began from the moment the latter arrived on the scene, in late March. Manafort exudes authority, even down to the way he calls the candidate “Donald” (Lewandowski says “Mr. Trump,” even in private). Manafort also developed a bond with the Trump family. “Paul has a robust relationship with Jared, Ivanka, and the boys,” a staffersays.

The takeover was cemented over the weekend when Manafort called a senior staff meeting at Trump Tower. The meeting, first reported by Politico, and which I confirmed, sent a message to staff that Manafort, not Lewandowski, is making decisions. Shortly after 8 a.m., Manafort gathered the advisers in the 25th-floor conference room. Manafort sat in the middle of the table; Lewandowski sat toward the end by the door. According to one person briefed on the meeting, Lewandowski spoke only for a short time about how Trump supporters take up too much time snapping photographs of the candidate on the rope line after rallies. Trump made a brief appearance at the meeting, which staffers interpreted as him blessing Manafort’s authority. When he left for a rally upstate, Lewandowski joined him while Manafort continued themeeting.

For Trump, Manafort’s ascension has both advantages and drawbacks. Trump has clearly become a more disciplined candidate in the time Manafort’s been on the scene. There’ve been fewer errant comments about abortion or NATO and fewer embarrassing tweets. “He’s calling Manafort like 20 times a day,” one person close to the campaign says. This is important, as Trump can’t afford unnecessary scandals as he attempts to reach the magic number of 1,237 delegates while girding for a contested convention. But a consequence of a newly professionalized Trump is that he could lose the insult-comic style that his fans crave. Insulting Heidi Cruz might be terrible politics, but it’s red meat for Trump’saudience.

In the meantime, Lewandowski will continue to travel with Trump and focus on advance work, the task for which he’s most qualified. But sources say things could get rough for him in the weeks ahead. Manafort and Gates are currently poring through the campaign’s financial records. “Every expenditure that Corey approved is being reviewed,” one source said. The speculation, sources close to the campaign say, is that they may be looking for ammo to take to Trump to show him that Lewandowski mismanaged expenses. People who know Trump best say there’s probably one thing he dislikes most: wastingmoney.

After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, uses an unofficial online messaging service for official White House business, including with foreign contacts, his lawyer told the House Oversight Committee late last year.

The lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he was not aware if Mr. Kushner had communicated classified information on the service, WhatsApp, and said that because he took screenshots of the communications and sent them to his official White House account or the National Security Council, his client was not in violation of federal records laws.

In a letter disclosing the information, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said that he was investigating possible violations of the Presidential Records Act by members of the Trump administration, including Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. He accused the White House of stonewalling his committee on information it had requested for months.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on Thursday urged President Donald Trump to stop disparaging the late Sen. John McCain, calling the Vietnam war hero “a dear friend” and defending him against the president’s criticisms. …

Ernst’s remarks came during a town hall meeting at a high school in Adel, Iowa, where several attendees voiced anger about Trump’s attacks about McCain. One attendee described McCain as a “genuine war hero” and called Trump’s comments about McCain “cowardly.”

“I do not appreciate his tweets,” Ernst said, when pressed by the attendee why she didn’t previously speak out more forcefully. “John McCain is a dear friend of mine. So, no I don’t agree with President Trump and he does need to stop.”

As we anticipate the end of Mueller, signs of a wind-down:-SCO prosecutors bringing family into the office for visits-Staff carrying out boxes-Manafort sentenced, top prosecutor leaving-office of 16 attys down to 10-DC US Atty stepping up in cases-grand jury not seen in 2mo

For Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers, the practice of charging to upgrade a standard plane can be lucrative. Top airlines around the world must pay handsomely to have the jets they order fitted with customized add-ons.

Sometimes these optional features involve aesthetics or comfort, like premium seating, fancy lighting or extra bathrooms. But other features involve communication, navigation or safety systems, and are more fundamental to the plane’s operations.

Many airlines, especially low-cost carriers like Indonesia’s Lion Air, have opted not to buy them — and regulators don’t require them. Now, in the wake of the two deadly crashes involving the same jet model, Boeing will make one of those safety features standard as part of a fix to get the planes in the air again.

… Boeing’s optional safety features, in part, could have helped the pilots detect any erroneous readings. One of the optional upgrades, the angle of attack indicator, displays the readings of the two sensors. The other, called a disagree light, is activated if those sensors are at odds with one another.

Boeing will soon update the MCAS software, and will also make the disagree light standard on all new 737 Max planes, according to a person familiar with the changes, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they have not been made public. The angle of attack indicator will remain an option that airlines can buy.

Attorneys for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and more than a dozen other defendants charged in a Florida prostitution sting filed a motion to stop the public release of surveillance videos and other evidence taken by police.

Attorneys filed the motion Wednesday in Palm Beach County court. The State of Florida does not agree with the request, according to the filing.

In the motion, the attorneys asked the court to grant a protective order to safeguard the confidentiality of the materials seized from the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, and “in particular the videos, until further order of the court.”

Two years in, White House aides are dismayed to discover the president likes lobbing pointless, nasty attacks at people like George Conway and John McCain

But the saga has left even White House aides accustomed to a president who bucks convention feeling uncomfortable. While the controversies may have pushed aside some bad news, they also trampled on Trump’s Wednesday visit to an army tank manufacturing plant in swing state Ohio.

“For the most part, most people internally don’t want to touch this with a 10-foot pole,” said one former senior White House official. A current senior White House official said White House aides are making an effort “not to discuss it in polite company.” Another current White House official bemoaned the tawdry distraction. “It does not appear to be a great use of our time to talk about George Conway or dead John McCain. … Why are we doing this?

When Mr. Trump was running for president, he promised to personally stop American companies from shutting down factories and moving plants abroad, warning that he would punish them with public backlash and higher taxes. Many companies scrambled to respond to his Twitter attacks, announcing jobs and investments in the United States — several of which never materialized.

But despite Mr. Trump’s efforts to compel companies to build and hire, they appear to be increasingly prioritizing their balance sheets over political backlash.

“I don’t think there’s as much fear,” said Gene Grabowski, who specializes in crisis communications for the public relations firm Kglobal. “At first it was a shock to the system, but now we’ve all adjusted. We take it in stride, and I think that’s what the business community is doing.”

There’s no specific stipulation that Milo must be heard, so it could be worse

President Trump is expected to issue an executive order Thursday directing federal agencies to tie research and education grants made to colleges and universities to more aggressive enforcement of the First Amendment, according to a draft of the order viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The order instructs agencies including the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Defense to ensure that public educational institutions comply with the First Amendment, and that private institutions live up to their own stated free-speech standards.

The order falls short of what some university officials feared would be more sweeping or specific measures; it doesn’t prescribe any specific penalty that would result in schools losing research or other education grants as a result of specific policies.